Irascible senior gives rare glimpse of grumpy side

I received an email earlier today asking if I would represent the paper in a celebrity pie eating contest.

First of all, I’ve always said that if the Free Press wants me to be a personality, then management can buy me one.

And eating a celebrity pie sounds like something from King Joffray’s wedding reception.

But my response was somewhat grumpier, and here’s the point at which all the anonymous Internet trolls can get out the thesaurus to find names to call me suggesting that I hate anyone’s having fun. Such fun to eat something that many among us would rarely if ever get to taste as an expensive treat, such fun to promote gluttony and over-indulgence in trying to hold down quantities whose consumption would do us great harm.

What I did suggest was that we could juxtapose coverage of the pie eating contest with a story about homelessness, hunger, and poverty, and with a story about Manitoba’s epidemic of obesity and diabetes.

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All you need to do is be a Winnipeg Free Press print or e-edition subscriber to join the conversation and give your feedback.

About Nick Martin

Nick Martin is the old bearded guy at the back of the newsroom, the most experienced reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press, having started his career in Ontario in 1971.

He’s been covering education for the Free Press since the spring of 1997, after decades primarily covering municipal politics, including a four-year stint at the Ontario legislature for the London Free Press.

Nick moved to Manitoba in 1988 with his Winnipeg-born wife, who is a professor at the University of Manitoba. They have two kids, both of whom graduated from Grant Park High School: son Chris and daughter Gillian.

Nick has won a national journalism award from the Canadian Association of University Teachers, two Manitoba Human Rights Journalism awards, and the Ontario Reporters Association investigative award.

Nick is a long-distance runner, having finished and survived 18 marathons and 15 half-marathons and 30-kilometre races, and having (barely) survived 10 years as an outdoor and indoor soccer coach.

Nick became a soccer referee in 2007, delighting in his 60s in outrunning 16-year-olds and keeping his distance from obstreperous coaches and parents.

Nick and his wife have discovered a mutual love for kayaking at their Whiteshell cottage, and are both regulars at the Reh-Fit Centre. They hold season tickets to both the Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Warehouse, and as empty nesters, have rediscovered the joys of an active winter vacation.

A native of Jarrow-on-Tyne, England, Nick is a member of the Toon Army as a Newcastle United supporter, and a proud citizen of Leafs Nation.